On Februy 3, 2017, the Agriculture Department removed all animal welfare inspection reports, enforcement records and citation records from its website. These documents were made public by the USDA nearly a decade ago. The records and annual reports provide information for every commercial animal facility in the U.S.— including zoos, dog and horse breeders, circuses and testing laboratories. The ridding of this information raises questions regarding transparency in the first few weeks of the Trump administration.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is responsible for maintaining the records, they have noted that the documents will still be available through Freedom of Information Act requests, which can be costly for the general public and can take time to obtain.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s stripping of material was abrupt and has caused mistrust among the public. Without this information, animal rights groups are left in the dark while puppy mills, animal research labs, circuses and zoos potentially benefit from their horrors being invisible to the public. Typically, reporters and welfare organizations keep track of these records and take it upon themselves to make the public aware of citations and mistreatment.
Organizations like these receive citations and fines regularly but it is only when the public refuses to support them, that these kinds of places are forced to shut down.